These installation notes cover a number of models of modems, laptops and Mac OS X versions 10.3.9 and above.

Apple has built-in WWAN support for some Novatel Wireless modems on some versions of OS and processors. In cases where WWAN support is not available, users may use the Modem manager with Novatel Drivers.

It is important to know the processor in your Mac and the version of the Mac OS X. To find out this information, click on the Apple (top left corner) and select "About This Mac".

It is recommended that

• Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.3.9.
• Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4.11.
• Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5.4.

Please use the links in these tables (Intel or PowerPC Processors) to help you navigate to the correct instructions for your equipment.

Mac Products with Intel Processor

Items with 'A' normally Auto Detect with Apple drivers even if Novatel Drivers installed.

Mac Products with Power PC Processor

Items with 'A' normally Auto Detect with Apple drivers even if Novatel Drivers installed.

Note: This document is provided for information purpose only. Novatel cannot accept any responsibility for the use of information provided in this document.

The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Novatel Wireless Inc. unless such commitment is expressly given in a covering document.

Introduction

This document describes how to set up and connect to the Internet using a Novatel Wireless Merlin Modem on the Linux platform using open source software packages.

Please note that this document is provided to guide current Linux users to be able to use Novatel Wireless Merlin cards on any graphical Linux distribution, however, the setup instructions in this document has been tested with Ubuntu Linux 6.10. For setup on other Linux distributions, you should still be able to follow the instructions after you download and install the necessary software packages outlined below. Instructions in this document are only meant to guide the user and its information may change at any time. Please contact Novatel Wireless technical support only if you are experiencing problems with the modem card itself.

Requirements

Before you can connect to the wireless network service provider with a Novatel Wireless Merlin modem, you will need the following:

• Novatel Wireless Merlin modem that has been activated on a Windows machine. The modem should be associated with an account with a service provider.

• Linux installation such as Ubuntu Linux 6.10, OpenSuSe 10.1 or later, or Fedora Core/Redhat Linux 6 or later.

• Linux installation should be running Kernel 2.6.x.x or later.

• KPPP Modem Dialing software application.

Known Limitations

• System/User can not monitor card status, ie, software does not show information about signal strengths, network service type, and connectivity status.
• The network indication available is by wireless card LED
• Card updates features are not available. This can be done on a Windows machine at least for the first use of the card.
• Maximum connection speed is limited by the current generic usbserial driver to approximately less than 500kbps.
• Driver loading is done on the command line (can be automated by adding the commands to a script that is run at boot time).

Setting Up Your Equipment

1. This setup assumes that you have installed the usbserial driver distributed on your CD according to the instructions in the driver installation readme file.

1. Open an xterm window unload the usbserial driver by entering (you will be required to enter the root password after entering this command):

"sudo modprobe –r usbserial"

1. On the terminal, load the driver to match your card product ID. Please lookup the proper product ID in Table 1.

"sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1410 product=0x[prodID]"

Table 1. Novatel Wireless modem products identification number.

Where prodID is the proper product ID that corresponds to your modem card in Table 1. Although it is not necessary to verify the result of running the command above, but if you want to be sure that the driver is now associated with your card, connect your modem to the computer, and run the following on the command-line:

"sudo dmesg | grep –i ttyUSB"

You should see something like:

usb 5-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0

usb 5-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB1

…

1. Make sure you have a working connection to the internet. It is recommended that you have an Ethernet connection in order to download the necessary packages for this setup. You can verify your computer's connection to the internet using one or both of the following commands, separately:

"ifconfig": You should see eth0 interface for a wired Ethernet interface connection with an acquired IP address, or you use the command:

"ping" the name of your favorite web site without quotes

1. Download a few packages: Please note that the instructions in this section describe the procedure for installing the necessary software packages on Ubuntu Linux 6.10. The procedure is very similar on other Linux distributions which support KPPP and KPPPLogview.
   • From the Ubuntu Applications menu, click on Add/Remove, and Add/Remove Applications utility should start.
   • Select "All" from the software application category on the left.
   • In the Search field type "ppp"
   • Select KPPP and KPPPLogview.
   • Click on Apply button located at the bottom of the Add/Remove Applications Window.
   • The downloading of these software packages will start and automatic installation will follow automatically. You should see something similar to the windows shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Add/Remove Applications utility downloading the selected packages. Installation should follow downloading automatically.

1. When the software installation procedure, you should see something similar to Figure 2 below:

Figure 2. Add/Remove Applications utility finished installing the select software packages and successfully applied changes to the system.

1. Start the KPPP software application by clicking the KPPP item from the Applications/Internet Menu. When the KPPP windows opens, click on Configure... button to launch KPPP Configuration windows. You should see the KPPP Configuration window similar to the one shown at the bottom in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. KPPP application window and KPPP Configuration window.

1. On the KPPP Configuration window's Accounts tab, click on New... button to start a "Create New Account - KPPP" dialog window. Figure 4 below shows this dialog window. Click Manual Setup button in the latter window. The New Account Manual Setup dialog window will open as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 4. Create New Account - KPPP dialog window is open as a child window of the KPPP Configuration dialog window.

Figure 5. New Account - KPPP dialog window is open as a child window of the Create New Account dialog window.

9. On the Dial tab, type "HSPA" in the Connection name field as shown above in Figure 5.

10. Click Add... button to open the Add Phone Number dialog window.

In the Add Phone Number dialog enter *99# and click OK.

Click OK button on the New Account dialog window without any further changes.



Note: some networks may need a different Number such as "*99***1#". Check with your service provider if *99# does not work for you.

11. Once you are back to the KPPP Configuration dialog window, click on Modems tab at the top and then click New... button as shown in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6. Modem tab of the KPPP Configuration Window.

12. In the New Modem Window, click on the Device tab and enter the data as shown in Figure 7 below. After entering/selecting the parameters in the New Modem dialog window, click OK and return back to the KPPP Configuration dialog window.

Figure 7. Device tab of the New Modem dialog window showing the parameters needed for Modem Name, Modem device, Flow control, Line termination, and Connection Speed fields.

13. To verify that KPPP is able to communicate with the modem card, select the Novatel Wireless Modem (or whatever you entered in the Modem name field of the New Modem dialog window) and click on Edit... button in the KPPP Configuration dialog window.

14. When the Edit Modem window for Novatel Wireless Modem is open as shown in Figure 8 below, click on the Modem tab and then click on Query Modem... button.

Figure 8. Modem tab in the New Modem window.

15. If the modem driver is properly setup and the connection is properly configured then you should see a multi-line response similar to the window shown in Figure 9. If you do not see this response, please try the setup procedure again. Click OK to dismiss the Modem Query Results window.

Figure 9. Successful Modem Query Results window showing the response sent by the card to ATI command sent when the Query Modem button is clicked.

16. Under "Modem Commands" in 'Initialization String 2', enter

AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","APNstring"

Then select "OK"

NOTE: APNstring is the APN required by your service provider. For example: "isp.cingular", "internet.com". IF your do not know your APN, please check with your service provider.

17. On the KPPP Configuration window, select Misc tab. Check Dock into panel on connection as shown in the bottom window in Figure 10 below then click OK to save KPPP configuration.

Figure 10. KPPP Configuration Misc tab settings.

19. At this point you are done with setting up your software to connect to the network using your Novatel Wireless 3G broadband modem card.

Connecting to the wireless network over ppp

In this section, you will start a ppp connection to the network.

1. If KPPP is not launched, start KPPP from the Application/Internet menu.

1. In the KPPP window, select the connection you have set up according to the instructions above. We suggested naming the connection as "HSPA" for simplicity. This connection name should be shown in the "Connect to" drop down list of KPPP

Figure 11. KPPP's main window showing the HSPA Connection selected.

1. Click on Connect button to start a PPP connection to your service provider's wireless network. If the connection is established successfully you should see a Globe icon close to the Network Connection icon on the system panel as shown in Figure 12 below.

Figure 12. Connection established and a Globe icon is shown at the top right side of the window.

1. If you Network Connection icon still shows eth0 as in Figure 13, click on the Network Connection icon and select ppp0 in the Connection Name drop down list as shown Figure 14.

Figure 13. Connection Properties dialog launched by double-clicking on the Network Connection icon at the top right side in the system panel next to the speaker (sound volume) icon.

Figure 14. Connection Properties dialog showing General tab's Connection Name drop down menu selection switched to ppp0.

1. Once connected, you can click on the Globe icon to show your KPPP connection window as shown in Figure 15. You can also click on the Details button on the KPPP connection window to show the connection statistics.

Figure 15. KPPP Connection window showing successfully established HSPA Connection including time connected and connection statistics in the KPPP statistics window.

1. Launch your favorite internet browser to request your favorite website. Since we are using Ubuntu Linux, we chose to view Ubuntu's website. Figure 16 below shows successful loading of the www.ubuntu.com main page over ppp0 connection.

Figure 16. Ubuntu web-site

Disconnecting from the WIRELESS Network

To disconnect your connection session, click on Disconnect button on KPPP's main HSPA Connection window as shown in Figure 16.

Troubleshooting

Dropped connection:

In the event that the connection is lost due to any reason, a manual reconnect is required. You can configure your Connection to automatically redial on disconnect.

DNS issues

For DNS-related issues, please verify entries in /etc/resolv.conf file. Please refer to your Linux distribution's user manual for more information about fixing this problem.